Nicolas Cage Joins Oliver Stone’s “Snowden”

Nic Cage has joined the cast of Oliver Stone’s Snowden. Stone’s film about notorious whistle blower Ewdard Snowden will be based on two books: Time of the Octopus, a novel by Snowden’s lawyer Anatoly Kucherena, and Luke Harding’s nonfiction work The Snowden Files, The Inside Story of the World’s Most Wanted Man.

News of Cage’s addition to the cast comes the day after Citizenfour, a documentary about Edward Snowden, has won the Academy Award for Best Documentary Feature.

The film stars Joseph Gordon Levitt (Dark Knight Rises, Looper) as the lead, Shailene Woodley (Divergent Series, Fault in Our Stars), Zachary Quinto (Star Trek, American Horror Story), and Melissa Leo (The Fighter, Prisoners). Nic Cage will play the role of a former U.S. intelligence officer.

Edward Snowden was granted temporary asylum by Russia after being charged with violating the Espionage Act and theft of government property in 2013 by the U.S. Department of Justice.

This will be Oliver Stone’s second film featuring Nicolas Cage. The two previous collaborated on World Trade Center which featured Nic Cage as the lead.

Citizenfour, the Academy Award winning documentary, will air tonight Febuary 23 on HBO.

Snowden opens in theaters on Christmas Day. The release date could put the feature film in the Oscar hunt as well.